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You are a secret agent named Alastair Cook Morgan. To your coworkers, you are known as Agent 23 to everyone except your close family and friends. You are trained in absolute stealth and secrecy. Your mother country, The United States, has hired you to take down multiple other nations world-wide. One day, you get an order to move to another country immediately. The country's name is not at your liberty to discuss. However, the night before you move, you get an anonymous letter. The letter is as written.

Dr 23. 13.3.18. 353/9 has created a monster. To go there would mean eminent failure. Sir. Run. From. It. It. Is Coming. For. You. The Fox. Is. Coming. For. You.

After that, there is text written.

gffiub ng cfzinbd icts.

You don't know what to think of it.

Not knowing what to do, you move to your assigned location. You took your silenced MP5 over the wide variety of 50 caliber weapons that your director offered.

The next morning, you reach your destination. As soon as you enter a taxi, you see a fox on the road and become paranoid. As you reach your precise location, you ask the taxi driver how much you have to pay. Suddenly, he knocks you out and when you wake up, you have nothing except your phone and your clothes with you. You do not have a connection on your phone and can only use what is downloaded. You seem to be under a road.

As you wake up, there is a person next to you.

Well, well Alastair. How are you today? (laughs manically). Didn't expect to be here today, huh? Beware the might of the fox! You can try and escape, but I doubt you will succeed. Fox out.

You have to escape. To escape, you need to find your location. You also need to know what threat you are in. Also, who was the fox?

Hint: (Spoilers)

The thing is three letters long

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  • $\begingroup$ I will add hints across time. $\endgroup$
    – Azync
    Mar 22, 2018 at 16:57
  • $\begingroup$ The question wasn't exactly possible, I will fix it soon. $\endgroup$
    – Azync
    Mar 22, 2018 at 17:22
  • $\begingroup$ 'Tis fixed, my good sires. $\endgroup$
    – Azync
    Mar 22, 2018 at 17:35

2 Answers 2

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From the various hints,

the italics spell vignere, three letter thing (key) - trying ACM and FOX as the keys decrypted the text to: bridge is falling down.

Question edit shows that London was part of this message earlier. So that message reveals your location and threat.

That doesn't mean you are in London though, you could easily be in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. That is where the actual London Bridge was relocated to in the 1960s. But he is introduced as an international agent, so we will ignore that I guess.

The other problem is that if you are under the bridge, you could have been thrown in the river from the fox's boat while unconscious, where drowning would be a more credible threat than a bridge demolition.

Things that are still unclear:

What do 'Dr 23', '353/9', 'fox' mean? If the fox is your boss, why would he be harming you? Why are we working against an allied nation? Why would finding your location be necessary for escaping - why not just swim to the shore or walk to that nearby road and hail a vehicle? Why was there a fox loose on the road at the ground transportation area of an international airport? Does answering these require some prior knowledge or movie reference (e.g. Get Smart) outside the information available in the question?

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  • $\begingroup$ So your key was AMC FOX? I tried that and both separately and it was just gibberish. $\endgroup$ Mar 23, 2018 at 0:02
  • $\begingroup$ @SamHarrington It is just FOX, you should have gotten was Amit Naidu did. $\endgroup$
    – Azync
    Mar 23, 2018 at 0:46
  • $\begingroup$ Amit Naidu, very well done. In reality, you were actually not supposed to find out that he was in London based on the edit. Dr 23 is simply shortened from Dear 23. The date was also the 13th of March, 2018. The 353/9 was the score of cricket game on that day, resulting in England winning, hence giving a clue that you may be in London. However, I will say, the word FOX was just derived from FOXHOUND, a group from Metal Gear Solid. I did not really think of the other things, such as why the director wants to harm you. Don't worry, in the end, you got the question right. $\endgroup$
    – Azync
    Mar 23, 2018 at 0:50
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Spoilers the answer is below

Where are you?

You are under a bridge (from the cipher) You learn the cipher from the letter, put the italic letters together getting - vigenere. So you put the thing that is at the bottom of the letter into a vigenere cipher giving you a bridge is falling.

What is happening

the London bridge is going to fall on you(It says a bridge is falling down, and that reminds me of the song - The London bridge is falling down...)

Who is the fox?

the fox is the director (He called you Alistar and only your close friends and family know your name, and the Director is the only person who knows your location since he gave you the gun to go to the bridge)

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  • $\begingroup$ Can you elaborate more on how you got your answers? For instance, how you cracked the cipher? And other relevant details should also be included in the answer. $\endgroup$
    – Sid
    Mar 22, 2018 at 18:04
  • $\begingroup$ @Sid he should also elaborate more on how it was London bridge and not any bridge. I left a very specific hint other than simply it being part of a song. $\endgroup$
    – Azync
    Mar 22, 2018 at 18:06

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